Pleasant said this fellowship, which was awarded to a group of 173 scholars, artists and scientists from the United States and Canada, will give her the freedom to create her artwork.

"It takes your work to a totally different level when you have that financial freedom," she said.

Pleasant's work includes painting, drawing, and ceramic sculpture, all exploring the body and language through repetition. She said she is captivated by human gesture and repetition.

"I will draw an image over and over again," she said. "I am interested in how an image evolves."

Pleasant said she is interested in the symbol of the body, pulling from rock paintings, Greek and Roman sculpture and other ancients works including writing.

"I use my drawings to build my own visual language, like an alphabet," she said.

In her new works, Pleasant said she wants to push her art further including creating larger ceramic sculptures.

In the 94th year of the Guggenheim Fellowships, the candidates were selected on their prior achievement and exceptional promise, according to the foundation. The 173 winners were selected from 3,000 applicants.

"It's exceptionally satisfying to name 175 new Guggenheim Fellows. These artists and writers, scholars and scientists, represent the best of the best," said Edward Hirsch, president of the foundation. "Each year since 1925, the Guggenheim Foundation has bet everything on the individual, and we're thrilled to continue to do so with this wonderfully talented and diverse group. It's an honor to be able to support these individuals to do the work they were meant to do."

Since its establishment, the foundation has granted more than $360 million in fellowships to more than 18,000 individuals, among whom are Nobel laureates, Fields Medalists, poets laureate, members of the various national academies, and winners of the Pulitzer Prize, Turing Award, National Book Awards, and other important, internationally recognized honors.

Pleasant was born and raised in Birmingham. She graduated from Shades Valley High School. She went on to receive her bachelor's in fine arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a master's in fine arts from the Tyler School of Art.

Though it wasn't her original plan, Pleasant said she remained in her hometown because of family and the affordability of studio space.

For about 13 years, she rented a raw space on the fourth floor of the Alabama Theatre. The space was right by the marquee, Pleasant said, and she only had to pay enough rent to cover her portion of the light bill.

She later moved to another space down the street that's also owned by the Alabama Theatre.

"I really saw Birmingham come alive" over the years, Pleasant said. "I am excited to be a part of it. That's why I stayed."

She said Birmingham has a strong base of art collectors. She said they are a smart and engaged group of people who want to see local artists thrive.

Pleasant was also recently awarded the 2018 South Arts Prize for the State of Alabama and was a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Award in 2015. Other awards include the Mary Hambidge Distinguished Artist Award (2015), and Individual Art Fellowships from the Cultural Alliance of Birmingham (2008) and the Alabama State Council on the Arts (2003).

She has held solo exhibitions at Jeff Bailey Gallery, Hudson/NYC; whitespace gallery, Atlanta, GA; Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, IN; Birmingham Museum of Art, AL; Atlanta Contemporary, GA; among others. Her work has been included in numerous two-person and group exhibitions at venues such as the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, AL; Adams and Ollman, Portland, OR; Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN; Cuevas Tilleard Projects, New York, NY; Knoxville Museum of Art, TN; Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw, GA; Lamar Dodd School of Art, Athens, GA; Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN; and Weatherspoon Museum of Art, Greensboro, NC.

Pleasant's work is in numerous collections, including the Birmingham Museum of Art, The Progressive Art Collection, and Art in Embassies.